ON A -LITTLE SKYLARK, FOUND DEAD ON THE DECK.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 161, 13 October 1883, Page 10

ON A -LITTLE SKYLARK, FOUND DEAD ON THE DECK.

(Bt a German Sailos, of thb Defiance.) : Poor, dear little lark, once so happy, and gay, With many songs greeting the dawn of the day, Say, why did you leave what is dearest to thee To die on the waves of the angry blue sea ! No flowery meadows invite thee to rest, No green fields of clover to build up thy nest, No Bweefc-suielling waters there flow ou the sea, No food there to gather if hungry thou be. A bright laughing morning has lured thee away, To roam on the ocean with sun's smiling ray ; Sweet melodies peal from thy musical breast, And float on the billows' fair silvery crest. But dark clouds arising soon hide from thine eye The land thou didst leave', little lark of the sky ; ' The rain is fast falling, no branch of a tree, No place' for a shelter but the waves of the sea. Too far hast tho a ventured thy w.ay back to find, Andnb one to' guide thee but the bleak biting wind, -A; storm-beaten ship, ploughs the wild roaring sea, The lark.xh'Qpppd-.on deck,.. though. ,; not- saved f should she be. . Too late did she reach the sheltering boat, No longer could warm her soft, downy coat ; All famished with, hunger, chill blasts round its he-ad— ;.;-.• One last little flutter, and the skylark was dead ! 0.8.